


Only One, But Not Alone

by Jedi Buttercup (jedibuttercup)



Category: Tin Man (2007)
Genre: Background Relationships, Gen, Hope, Post-Canon, Sisters, Wordcount: 1.000-5.000
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-14
Updated: 2019-02-14
Packaged: 2019-10-24 08:36:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,900
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17701043
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jedibuttercup/pseuds/Jedi%20Buttercup
Summary: When the only alternatives were her still-Lightless mother or a Slipper's daughter raised on the Otherside with very little grasp of either their culture or her responsibilities... there had never been a question of who would keep the crown.





	Only One, But Not Alone

**Author's Note:**

  * For [jeffgoldblumvevo](https://archiveofourown.org/users/jeffgoldblumvevo/gifts).



> Mostly about the sisterly relationship, and the fandom-nonstandard take on Az's future, but with a touch of ship, too. :)

The door of the Tower's records room closed with a muted, solid _clang_ , and Azkadellia looked up from the books spread before her with a startled flinch.

The intruder wasn't a threat, though; not a resistance fighter looking for revenge, or a Longcoat seeking to free their Sorceress from her imprisonment. The news of what had truly happened the day of the Eclipse hadn't made it to all corners of the Zone yet, and as recent events had already proven, the Tower wasn't all that difficult to break into; she'd been half-expecting someone to come for her ever since the Witch's plan had failed and the suns had reappeared again. But today, it was only her sister. 

"Deegee?"

DG stared back at her, blue eyes wide and arms thrust behind her to brace against the solid metal. "Did you know she was going to do this?" she asked, voice high and tight with dismay.

"Do what?" Azkadellia asked, brow furrowed. 

Obviously this had to be about their mother; how many other women had DG even met since returning to the OZ? A few resistance fighters and Central City residents, perhaps, but no one close enough to upset her so; there were no other women besides the royal family currently in the Tower. The Witch hadn't had friends, or even female servants – not because she looked down on them any more than any other mortal, but because she preferred not to give Azkadellia the chance to feel close to anyone else.

Queen Lurline had seemed a much kinder mother-figure than the Witch before the possession, but the fifteen annuals since had proven her just as ruthless. Following DG's path through the OZ before the double eclipse had made that very clear: there was no way she hadn't guessed what her plan would put both her daughters through before the end. Maybe giving so much of herself away to revive DG had made it easier for her to see the logic and harder to care about the emotional consequences? Or maybe that was just the price of power? In which case, she supposed she fit right in....

Or perhaps that was the lingering whisper of the Witch in her ear. Either way, though, it didn't change the results. And DG had always had a strong independent streak, even as a little girl; now that the pressure had lessened, there were bound to be mismatches in expectations.

DG shook her head, loosely bound dark hair flying about her face. "I went down to the city today," she backtracked to explain, "helping in the healing centers, and backing up the Resistance guys – not everyone wants to listen to them.

"Don't worry, I took Cain and Raw with me," she hastened to add. "But when we were done, Raw said that now that the worst is over, he'll be taking Kalm back to their people soon. So I told Mom I was thinking of going with them, you know, like an embassy...."

The picture became clearer. "And Mother told you no?"

Her sister pushed away from the door and began to pace, frustrated energy radiating from her every movement. She was wearing something like a blend between resistance fighters' garb and her own Otherside gear: a shirt in a pastel blue that emphasized the color of her eyes, cut to display her collarbones with delicate embroidery down the sleeves, over trousers and boots that wouldn't have been out of place in a Tin Man's wardrobe. Only a bracelet clasped with the symbol of the House of Gale announced her authority; the effect was very ... active, and nothing like what most OZian noblewomen wore. Az had mostly foregone dark colors and the deeply cut necklines the Sorceress had favored since the Eclipse, but even she had not been so daring. Even so ... it did suit her little sister. Or would have, if she didn't seem so distressed.

DG threw Azkadellia a pained look as she replied. "She told me it _wasn't a good time_. That surely I knew she and Dad would be retiring to Finaqua, now that it was all over. That you were going to need me _here_. What the hell is going on, Az? I thought ... I mean...."

She paused and threw up her hands. "It's not I think you won't do a good job! It's just – _now_? Half the Zone probably doesn't even know what happened yet, what if the ceasefire doesn't hold? And I just _got_ here. I don't even _know_ the OZ, except for where I've been the last couple of weeks. And now that Raw's leaving, and Glitch is talking about going to Ev for his surgery, and Dad was talking about maybe sending Cain to connect with the surviving Tin Men...."

She crossed her arms over her chest at that, faltering to a halt, and Azkadellia bit her lip. Of course she was worried about being left alone with the woman who'd killed her. "You wanted to stay close to at least one of your friends. I understand; I know it's asking a lot, after everything I did to you."

DG drew up short at that, blue eyes widening in a gratifying degree of surprise. "What? No. It's not about you, Az, believe me. It's just...." 

She pulled out one of the chairs across the table from Azkadellia, then dropped down into it, bracing her arms atop the solid surface and lacing her fingers together. She took a deep breath, considering, then let it go and looked up to meet Azkadellia's eyes. "Before all this. Back before the dreams started, in Kansas, when I was just a waitress and part-time student ... I was planning to take a long trip, as soon as I had enough money to get away. Across an ocean kind of long – which I guess here would be like crossing the Shifting Sands. Anything to get me away from the same little town I'd always lived in. The same people, the same crappy prospects, the complete lack of feeling that I belonged. Maybe some of that _was_ because some part of me remembered that I belonged here instead. But at the same time, it feels like I only _just_ got out of that box. And now Mom wants to put me in another one?"

Unbidden, the image of a green marble casket flashed through Azkadellia's thoughts, and she reached forward impulsively to lay a hand over her sister's. The familiar spark of magic sprang up between them at the contact, just the barest glow of reassuring energy trickling out from between their fingers, and a faint smile pulled at the corner of her mouth.

"I'm sure that's not what she intended, little sister. If anyone knows about feeling trapped ... I suppose that's something we all have in common, now. But she might be right about not taking a long journey right _now_. You're not just a girl anymore, and no matter how much I might wish I could walk away from all this ... neither am I. I'm as surprised as you are about the timing, but not really about her not wanting to take the throne again."

She _would_ have preferred to have more time to regain her balance. She still felt numb and hollowed out inside when she had a moment to herself, or whenever she caught the Tower's remaining staff watching her with haunted eyes. Her head rang like an empty bell with the Witch and the mobats all gone; the Light that remained to her often felt dimmed, struggling to fill up the empty space the Dark had left behind. But while the resistance had won a victory on the day of the Eclipse, that had only been a single victory in a single location. The Zone was large, and contained at least as many Longcoats as it did rebel fighters. And there was a _reason_ the people of the OZ – including many of her mother's formerly loyal supporters, like the late General Lonot – had thrown their support behind Azkadellia when the Sorceress had begun her rise to power ten annuals before. Those were truths she could not ignore.

The Sorceress had been temperamental, absolute in her exercise of power, and frequently cruel to those who crossed her will in any way. But she had also provided goals, employment, and rewards for those who had supported her. And even before she'd disappeared, Queen Lurline had done _nothing_ to offer the people any alternative. It hadn't escaped anyone's notice that the younger princess' death, the drought in the Fields of the Papay, and the increasing unrest in other corners of the OZ had drawn no response at all from the Queen's Light in those early annuals. The Queen was the land, in a very real sense, to the people of the Zone. Some magic – however dark it might be – was always better than none.

For better or for worse, it was still Azkadellia that commanded that power; she didn't have the luxury of taking time out to recover. Her face might forever draw a flinch from the average Winkie who had only ever known her as the Sorceress, but when the only alternatives were her still-Lightless mother or a Slipper's daughter raised on the Otherside with very little grasp of either their culture or her responsibilities ... there had never been a question of who would keep the crown. They'd love DG, of course; for her heroism, her compassion, and for her proven magical ability. It also would reassure the ones who'd distrust that the Witch was truly gone, or worry that past possession might leave Azkadellia vulnerable to another. But if it came down to a question of rule?

 _Only one, and one alone, shall hold the Emerald and take the Throne_.

DG had found the Emerald. But Azkadellia had _held_ it as the suns passed behind the moon, and all the moritanium-infused memory viewing discs her mother had ordered distributed throughout the Zone would only reinforce that fact, once everyone had had a chance to see it. The Zone's residents might not be happy about it, but many of them would believe in the fulfillment of the prophecy nonetheless. Especially if Glitch's still-separated calculating brain was right, and the brief time she'd disrupted the orbit of the moons had been enough to accomplish his original purpose in building the sunseeder. They just had to survive that long.

A few annuals of better and longer growing seasons would go a long way toward easing people's opinions. And if the rank and file of the Longcoats, the ones who hadn't been part of Zero's hunting bands, would be willing to lay down arms and help with the rebuilding instead ... no one could bring back the people who had been lost, but everything else, they could begin to do something about.

"Really?" DG slumped further in her chair, voice wavering a little. "I guess I just thought ... after all the time we were separated...." 

Bitterness speared through Azkadellia at the reminder; she wanted to say something sharp and dismissive about separation not always making the heart grow fonder. But she held her tongue. DG's grievances with their parents were very different from hers, and Azkadellia valued her rekindled relationship with her sister far more than she wanted to nurse her own lingering pain. It helped remind her that she was free now, when the whispers in her nightmares overtook her.

It also helped that the moment she'd realized the Witch was gone, the former Queen had instantly begun referring to Azkadellia as her daughter again. All the annuals of denials – and the cloak the Witch had drawn over many of her happiest memories to reinforce Azkadellia's feelings of abandonment – had nearly made her believe that the malevolent ghost had been right, and her mother really _had_ always been planning to cast her aside in favor of DG. But the truth was more complex than that one moment of reunion could resolve; no real ending could ever be as neat as those in the old stories about the First Slipper and the lost faerie princess turned prince who had created the Gale dynasty together.

There'd be no prince for she or DG, for one thing; it would be a long time before their relations with the other realms normalized enough for them to offer their sons as consorts again, even if Azkadellia could afford to trust any of them not to seek to take advantage of the OZ's current troubles. Luckily, DG already seemed to have her eye on someone who wouldn't have that problem – and from the way Wyatt Cain's gaze softened as he watched her in turn, he was already half-caught, even if he didn't fully realize it yet. As for the rest, it would take a lot of work to fully restore peace in the Outer Zone and dispel all the Witch's lingering poison ... including amongst the royal family themselves. 

All she could do was keep going, and see where the route would take her. _Only one way to know._

"Magic can do many things, little sister, including shorten distances," she said instead. "Or have you forgotten the travel storm already? Maybe instead of ducking Tutor all the time, you could ask him to help you use your magic to communicate with our parents at Finaqua? Or would keeping track of that Tin Man of yours – and your other friends, of course – be a better incentive?"

"Az!" DG's cheeks reddened noticeably at the hint, though she didn't bother denying it. "You really think I could manage something like that? I'm still having a lot of problems with control." 

"I think you could do whatever you put your mind to, Deeg ... though unless you really _want_ to help me go through the records of decrees and banishments and executions before the next meeting of the interim council tomorrow, to help figure out what we have to work with in reconstructing the Court...." Added to the information her father had gathered from less official sources during his annuals in the role of the Seeker, they should be able to form a clear picture of current conditions in the Zone.

Abruptly, DG seemed to realize what she'd interrupted; she glanced down at the books, thenmade a sheepish face as she pushed back her chair. "Oh, right. Sorry; I guess I'll leave you to it, then. Thanks for listening, though." Then she seemed to remember something, and she glanced back again, eyes wide. "Oh! By the way, that aide of yours, the guy who always stood behind you with that disapproving look on his face...."

The breath caught suddenly in Azkadellia's throat. She wouldn't miss most of the Witch's favorites, particularly those like Zero and Raynz who had taken pleasure in the cruel tasks the Witch had asked of them. But Vysor had been _hers_ before he was ever the Sorceress', the son of one of her mother's advisors who'd shared the same academic tutors when they were young. He'd stuck with her through all fifteen annuals of her possession, even when his hands had visibly trembled to carry out her orders. 

"Vysor?" she replied, careful to keep her tone even. "I heard that he'd been captured."

"Yeah, he surrendered right away, showed Jeb's guys how to finish powering the machine down once he realized it was all over. Funny thing, though – the only thing he asked of _them_ was whether or not you were okay. Mom had Raw confirm his loyalty when we got back, before I got into it with her. So if you _do_ want someone to help you out with the paperwork...?"

Azkadellia swallowed past the sudden lump in her throat, then gave her sister a watery smile. "That would be ... very helpful. Would you like me to suggest to Father that he talk to the younger Cain about using the Army of the Resistance to reform the Tin Men, and ask _your_ Cain if he'd rather have a position with the Royal Guard instead?"

DG's face flamed again, but her eyes sparkled. "Not to put the cart before the horse or anything ... but if you think he'll go for it...?"

Azkadellia waited until the sounds of her steps faded down the hall, then stood and followed her sister out the door. The guard outside nodded to her, only a trace of nervousness in his bearing; she sighed, and let him trail after her as she sought out the nearest room with a balcony.

Outside, the Zone spread lush and sunlit to the horizon. With DG's Light back in the OZ, and without the machine in the Tower pumping out more pollution, the fields around the base of the structure had already begun to heal. DG had suggested magicking the entire building emerald green to signify what had happened there, and maybe refurbishing the walls around Central City the same way; she'd mostly been teasing, but Azkadellia thought it might actually be a good idea. Whimsical, but if she and DG did it together....

Maybe it was true that only one could take the throne. But DG had been right, too: she didn't have to bear that burden alone.

_Nothing can hurt us if we stay together._

Hope felt almost foreign, after so many annuals of darkness; but Azkadellia welcomed it as it came, staring out into her future with a wistful smile.


End file.
